Survey: Four in 10 Brits Don’t Think Crypto Will Be Used as Cash or Card

YouGov internet market research and data analysis group has conducted a survey about cryptocurrency use today and in the future in Great Britain.

The results found that more men than women were interested in the technology, it was a younger crowd who mostly saw Bitcoin and other digital assets’ potential, and just one in five felt that it was a good idea to reject central banking in favour of a cryptocurrency future.

YouGov took a sample from its 800,000 registered members to determine which demographics in the U.K. were most interested or involved with crypto. This collection of people supposedly represents a diverse range of ages, genders, social classes, and academic backgrounds.

The YouGov website published the outcomes of the series of questions put to the sample today. The first addressed whether the respondents had even heard of Bitcoin. Here, an impressive 93% of Brits said they had.

The follow-up question addressed how many “feel they understand how Bitcoin works.” To this, only 9% of those answering stated that they understood the cryptocurrency “very well.” This compared to 65% who admitted to having the poorest understanding of BTC.

Interestingly, far more men claim to understand the financial and technological innovation than women. Compared to the 39% of men who said they understood Bitcoin either “very well” or “fairly well,” just 14% of women said they felt the same.

As you’d probably expect, young people were much more likely to have a stronger grasp on crypto. Over two in five of those responding to the survey said they understand Bitcoin “fairly well.” This compared with just 16% of those aged over 55. The results on age demographics are in keeping with U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTTC) chair Christopher Giancarlo’s opinion that interest in digital assets is generational.

The survey then addressed who had actually bought Bitcoin. Again, the results support the idea that younger people are more receptive to the ideas of decentralised money and digital scarcity. A total of 45 respondents aged 18-24 said they had either bought the digital asset themselves or knew someone who had. At the other end of the spectrum were those older than 55-years-old again. Just 1% had bought BTC themselves and 7% knew a Bitcoin investor personally.

Next, those involved in the survey were asked if they believed that cryptocurrencies would play an important role in the future of finance. Over one in five respondents stated that they felt digital assets would eventually be as widely used as card or cash payments. The answer distribution between the men and women was much closer in response to this question with 22% of men and 19% of women saying they thought a cryptocurrency future was likely.

Finally and perhaps most telling, the sample was asked about how they felt about the idea of a currency controlled by the public rather than one provided by a centralised institution such as the Bank of England. Just 3% of those asked said they felt “very positive” about the idea and 9% were “fairly positive.” The most popular answer by a sliver was “neutral” at 25%. Just behind was “fairly negative” at 24% and “very negative” at 20%. Finally, 18% of people asked said they didn’t know how to feel about it.

Presumably, if you were to ask the same question in a nation such as Zimbabwe, Turkey, or Venezuela you would get a very different answer. In terms of banks, the Bank of England is one of the least likely to abuse their power and trust in the institution has certainly been reflected in the responses to the survey.

Of course, there are issues with these kinds of online polls. The chief of these is the fact that we must assume that an overwhelming majority of the respondents are computer literate. If they were not, they would be highly unlikely to be a registered member of the YouGov platform in the first place.

This is immediately problematic with a topic such as digital currencies. Since a huge number of those surveyed are obviously regular internet users, they are much more likely to have encountered cryptos previously. The figures are therefore likely exaggerated when compared with a true survey of the entire British public.